Saturday, June 30, 2018

Whether it’s being done for evangelistic purposes or to boost the
coffers of struggling churches, several Anglican cathedrals in England
are reviving practices that had been abandoned since the Reformation.

One is even holding processions in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.British cathedrals are “transforming their genteel image with bright
color, noisy processions and drama, reviving long-abandoned practices
from the middle ages and drawing in the crowds,” reported the Guardian.

Those “long-abandoned practices” include medieval mystery plays,
which were once common features in Christian villages throughout Europe
as a way to teach the faith to a largely illiterate populace.

Their revival comes at a time when Europe has one of the lowest rates of Christian adherence in centuries, as well as at a time when smart phone use is at an all-time high.

“We have returned to a very visual culture today, and medieval
practices suit that,” said Jeffrey John, the dean of St.
Alban’s Cathedral in Hertfordshire who created a modern-day pilgrimage
to honor the first Christian martyred in Britain. “And if you have
strong medieval roots as so many cathedrals do, you are bound to probe
them and revive that heritage.”

Three different generations of Delaware
women — none of whom have ever led a protest before — are the organizers
behind a trio of immigration protests across the state Saturday.

After
President Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy and child
separations, the women all had the same reaction: "I have to do
something."

Wilmington's Maria Perez, 69, Bear's
Joni Newby, 38, and Dover's McKenzie Melvin, 18 — none of whom know
one other — each created an event on MoveOn.org as part of more than 600 protests scheduled across the country this weekend.

While their backgrounds may be different — Perez is a
doctor, Newby is a social worker and Melvin is a college student —
their message is unified: Stop separating families and treat migrants
and refugees with respect.

"A child being separated
from their parents is just unthinkable. And for a parent not to know
where their child is — it doesn't make any sense to me," says Perez, a
longtime member of Milltown's St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, the site of
her protest. "I just felt that I needed to do this."

Three bishops have proposed a resolution on same-sex marriage that
“seeks to ensure that all of God’s people have access to all the
marriage liturgies of the church, regardless of diocese, while
respecting the pastoral direction and conscience of the local bishop.”

Long Island Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, Pittsburgh Bishop Dorsey McConnell and Rhode Island Bishop Nicholas Knisely said in a news release late on June 28 that their Resolution B012 is “an attempt to move the church forward in an atmosphere of mutual respect, reconciliation and the love of Jesus Christ.”

The resolution continues to authorize the two trial-use marriage
rites first approved by the 2015 meeting of General Convention without
time limit and without seeking a revision of the 1979 Book of Common
Prayer.

“Given our particular time in history, this resolution provides a way
forward for the whole church without the possible disruption of
ministry that might be caused by the proposed revision of the Book of
Common Prayer,” the three bishops said.

Friday, June 29, 2018

Nearly
two dozen clergy members were arrested in Los Angeles Tuesday as they
protested the Trump administration’s immigration policies and Attorney
General Jeff Sessions’ planned visit to the area.

The
religious leaders from different faith backgrounds linked arms to block
Spring St. near a federal courthouse as police ordered them to
disperse.

With
cops threatening immediate arrest, they sat down side-by-side in the
street in an act of civil disobedience organized by Clergy and Laity
United for Economic Justice (CLUE), a spokeswoman for the group told the
Daily News.

Rabbi
Aryeh Cohen was one of the clergy members hauled away in plastic cuffs.
Speaking to The News after his release, Cohen said he was one of 23
total clergy members cited with an infraction for failing to follow a
lawful order.

First lady Melania Trump was expected to land in Tucson, Arizona, on
Thursday, marking her second trip to visit facilities holding
undocumented immigrant families. Ahead of the first lady’s visit, a
local church hung two banners affirming their position as to where Jesus
would stand on the issue of detaining children.

Saint Philip's
In The Hills Episcopal Church, located about 15 miles from Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base, where the first lady was expected to fly into from
Washington, D.C, posted two banners on a wall outside the church facing a
busy intersection, according to Fox 11 News.

The
banners show a photo of a young boy standing next to two people, who
appear to be border patrol agents, accompanied by the words, “Jesus
doesn't want kids to be in cages."

From The Church Times-ON JUNE 21, the longest day of the year, the Episcopal Church in the
United States held a prayer vigil for family unity from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
in its chapel on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, to call attention to the
Trump administration’s policy of separating the children of migrant
families. The day was chosen, the Episcopal News Service said on its
website, “in recognition of the fact that any day children are separated
from their parents is too long”.

Although the President made a
U-turn hours before the vigil — after videos showing children held in
“tender-age facilities” crying for their parents provoked outrage — the
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Revd Michael Curry,
said that concerns about the detention of families continued.

In a
video message urging people to log on to the prayer vigil, which was
screened live on Facebook, he said: “The ways that we implement our
immigration concerns, the ways that we secure our borders, need not be
separated from our compassion and our human decency.”

The Episcopal Church in South Carolina (TECSC) will host three public
open conversations held in Conway, Charleston and Bluffton between July
16-18 at 6 - 7:30 p.m.

TECSC is offering the open conversations
to provide information and answer questions for people whose churches
are affected by recent court decisions giving control of the property of
the Diocese of South Carolina and 28 parishes to The Episcopal Church
and its recognized diocese, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina.

“We
understand this is a time of great concern and confusion for people who
care deeply about their faith communities,” said the Right Rev.
Gladstone B. Adams III, Bishop of TECSC. “We want to listen well and
respond to their questions in order to offer a clear picture of how
people can remain in their churches as part of The Episcopal Church.”

Thursday, June 28, 2018

From ENS-A group of bishops has proposed a compromise on the question of
whether the president of the House of Deputies should be paid, an issue
that has proved divisive at previous General Conventions.The compromise comes as the result of Presiding Bishop Michael
Curry’s desire for the issue to get a “full and fair conversation” in
the House of Bishops, Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania Sean Rowe
told Episcopal News Service June 28.

That conversation began informally at the March House of Bishops meeting. Rowe and the group then crafted Resolution B014 that would direct the church’s Executive Council
to pay the House of Deputies president director’s fees “for specific
services rendered in order to fulfill duties required by the church’s
Constitution and Canons.”

The resolution, and others related to the issue, will be debated
during the July 5-13 meeting of General Convention in Austin, Texas.

For the last few years Christians have been singing worship songs that include lyrics like “ keep my eyes above the waves, when oceans rise …” and yet have rejected refugees who’ve seen loved ones die beneath waves, who themselves have literally
struggled to keep from drowning in oceans. Those American Christians —
particularly white evangelicals — continue to sing the words: “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders …”
but fail to realize the shameful irony that they’re largely responsible
for refusing shelter and opportunity to some of the world’s most
helpless and oppressed people.

This represents a predominant theme of Westernized Christendom:
proclaiming Christian rhetoric while actively — or passively —
practicing the opposite in reality.

Because while the gospels
instruct followers of Christ to help the poor, oppressed, maligned,
mistreated, sick, and those most in need of help, Christians in America
have largely supported measures that have rejected refugees, refused aid
to immigrants, cut social services to the poor, diminished help for the
sick, fueled xenophobia, reinforced misogyny, ignored racism, stoked
hatred, reinforced corruption, and largely increased inequality,
prejudice, and fear.

Joining other churches
in the Atlanta area, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church (IHM)
and the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany (ECE) have published rebukes
of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

The IHM statement from Father Javier Muñoz states that the “the
separation of immigrant children from their parents is countenanced,
much less embraced, by anyone in our nation demonstrates how far we have
fallen in common decency and respect for the human person.”

Although the current administration has recently shifted its
immigration policies and is no longer separating families, many groups still believe that it is not enough.

“As I told our United States Senators, my representative and the
White House when I contacted them last week: A letter like this should
not have to be written,” the pastor wrote.

The pressing areas of social justice, multiculturalism and ethnic
ministries were all examined during the committee’s three-year study of
how the Episcopal Church can better equip itself and minister
effectively in multiple social contexts in “these deeply troubled and
divisive times,” the committee’s report states.

If there is an overarching takeaway, the committee’s chair, the Rev.
Winnie S. Varghese of the Diocese of New York, hopes it is that “we need
to find more ways to release the gifts of the church from communities
that we tend to position as ‘being served’ by the church,” she said in
an email in response to questions submitted by Episcopal News Service.

From Florida-When the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church
meets this summer, it’s widely expected to pass a measure fully
approving gay marriage within the church. It took a big step toward that
decision the last time the body met, in 2015. There were, however, some
holdouts, including the diocese that encompasses the Episcopalian
churches of Northeast Florida.

Lawrence Denton, a lifelong Episcopalian, took it hard when the
Diocese of Florida opted out of the church’s 2015 decision to approve
“trial rights” for gay marriage. While the Episcopal Church has been far
more progressive on the issue than most protestant denominations, the
diocese that represents Northeast Florida is part of about 10 percent of
dioceses that chose to go in another direction. Denton describes
himself as a “lifelong Episcopalian who happens to be gay.”

So in 2015, Denton stopped attending the Episcopal Church of the Good
Shepherd in Riverside, where he’d been a member since 1997, sending a
letter of protest to Bishop Samuel Johnson Howard, as well as to leaders
and friends in his home congregation.

Denton has lived in Jacksonville since the late 1980s and has
belonged to various congregations, including St. John’s Episcopal
Cathedral downtown and the Metropolitan Community Church. He joined Good
Shepherd because a friend told him the clergy and members were
gay-friendly; the members founded a local chapter of the national group
Integrity USA, whose website characterizes it as “working for full
inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the
Episcopal Church and beyond.”

The meeting happened in the evening June 25 just before the first of a series of U2 concerts in New York on the band’s Experience + Innocence tour. A photo released by the band shows the foursome posing with Curry.

“I know of no other group that has sung and witnessed more powerfully
to the way of love than U2,” Curry said June 27 in a written statement
to Episcopal News Service. “It was a real blessing to sit with them to
talk about Jesus, the way of love, and changing our lives and the world.
They are an extraordinary community gift to us all.”

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

From Alabama-Trinity Episcopal Church became the first Clanton church to open a
free, outdoor food pantry service developed by Shelby County nonprofit
organization Three Hearts One Mission.

Stationed outside the church’s next-door Heflin House, the
miniature pantry resembles a large birdhouse on a stand with a glass
door offering a sneak-peek at its canned contents.

Co-founder Rachel Davidson of Three Hearts One Mission said the pantry
is a safe source of canned goods for the needs of anonymous community
members.

“We’re delighted
this is going to be the first one, but we’re also looking forward to
having more of them in different places and working with you in the
years to come,” Janet Pandzik told Three Hearts One Mission founders
during a dedication ceremony on June 22.

One of Rev. Winnie Varghese’s proudest moments as a queer priest was being asked to speak to an ecumenical gathering of Christian leaders in India about homophobia in the church.

Starting around 2009, the country started re-examining Section 377, a colonial-era ban on gay sex that is still being debated in Indian courts. During the conference, Varghese stood up and testified to the assembly of mostly male Indian priests about how Christian bigotry has hurt LGBTQ people.

Varghese said that it was a powerful experience for her ― and one of the hardest things she’s ever had to do.

“It was just about me as a person,” the 46-year-old said. “It was me as a queer priest saying, ‘This is who I am. And this is what the church demands of you.’”

Varghese, 46, is an Episcopal priest who lives in New York. A queer South Asian woman, Varghese said she’s often called on to perform a “ministry of representation,” showing people what it’s like to listen to a priest with her unique identities.

From ENS-Fifty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a Poor People’s
Campaign. As part of that campaign, during an April 1968 trip to
Memphis, Tennessee, in support of African-American sanitation workers
striking for higher wages, King was shot dead. Today, a new Poor
People’s Campaign is under way and Episcopalians are getting involved.

“Today you are the founding members of the 21st century’s ‘Poor
People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.’ We gather today
for a call to action. We gather here declaring it’s time for a moral
uprising all across America,” said the Rev. William Barber on June 23.
He co-chairs the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral
Revival, along with the Rev. Liz Theoharis.

“This is not the commemoration of what happened 50 years ago, this
the reenactment and the re-inauguration. Because you do not commemorate
prophets and prophetic movements. You go in the blood where they fell
and reach down and pick up the baton and carry it the next mile of the
way. For three years we’ve been laying a foundation from the bottom up,
not the top down.”

Gafcon came into being after the election in the US Episcopal Church (Anglican) of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

It describes itself as “a global
family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore
the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion”.

Gafcon includes Anglican Primates from many Africa countries as well as bishops and clergy from Australia, Canada and the US who boycotted the last gathering of the worldwide Anglican Communion at the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

From Jamaica-
Several pastors across the island could surrender their marriage
officer's licences in protest of a decision by the Registrar General's
Department (RGD) to charge them $10,000 to register, plus an annual
registration fee.

The pastors are also upset about an invitation by the RGD for all
marriage officers to attend a training session that costs a further
$15,000.

The Reverend Dr Howard Gregory, Anglican bishop of Jamaica and the
Cayman Islands, raised the issue last week in an open letter to Prime
Minister Andrew Holness, seeking clarification.

According to Gregory, attempts to get answers or a resolution have so
far been met with promises to look into the matter and, at times, the
lack of courtesy of a response.

"He needs to say something as to exactly what is the position of the
Government in relation to what is being done in relation to marriage
officers, particularly ministers, at this time," argued Gregory.

ONE of the stand-out moments from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding was the unforgettable speech by Bishop Michael Curry.

Now the US Bishop has revealed the exact moment he knew that the
couple were head over heels for each other – and it’s extremely
heartwarming.

Bishop Curry said to US Weekly:
"Once I realised this was really happening, it was a real blessing to
be a part of that. Because what they did, you could see it. They
actually love each other. They really do.
"They look at each other like they love each other. I remember
thinking after the sermon, once I preached the sermon, I said, 'These
two people love each other.'

Delivering the sermon at Prince Harry
and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding last month gave Episcopalian
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry a much bigger pulpit, but his head hasn’t
swelled and his message hasn’t changed — judging by his visit Saturday
to Christ Episcopal Church in La Crosse.

Curry’s
sermon at the May 19 wedding, broadcast live to millions of people
around the globe, drew widespread praise for his impassioned plea for
love of Jesus Christ and each other — widely interpreted as an
admonition to restore civility to public and private discourse.

“I don’t think I said anything new,”
Curry said during an interview before he participated in two events at
Christ Episcopal, a congregation of 325 souls. “There’s something about
preaching about love that has gone unsaid for a while.

“I
wanted to say something, speaking to the couple, but with understanding
for the rest of the world,” he said. “It’s part of my heart.”

The
65-year-old Curry, who was elected the first black bishop of the
Episcopal Church in 2015, basically is the top official of the
denomination in the United States.